Prior to the restoration effort they were not able to get information (411) and in some offices they had delayed or no dial tone. Testing these qualities are a normal first reflex when service providers lose a whole slew of routes, all at once, as an eery silence ensues.
A very basic means of determining that POTS was coming up all around them was to simply pick up the phone and attempt to access these services.
Yes, your questions are well formed, if for no other reason than to illuminate the issue and to demonstrate the state of mind of the ILEC spokesman/release by ignoring any impact to the 'net sector.
"How can POTS have service tier priority?"
Very simply, dial tone is still king. Both to the ILEC and to most end users. And to the PUCs.
Which would most users rather be without, given the choice?
The overwhelming majority will always choose to have dial tone over Internet access, which is a kind of reverse-oxymoronic statement if you think about it, since most users cannot have 'net access without dialtone to begin with. But it further proves the point.
But at the higher tiers of service, deeper into the respective clouds, they would rather go without 'net access than dialtone, where residentials are concerned.
But even this would also depend on circumstance. If it's a business we're talking about which depends entirely on the 'net being up to stay afloat, as opposed to a residential situation, then they would choose the 'net.
A second reason for POTS taking priority is that the ILECs get measured by the PUCs, and more importantly it could be argued, by public opinion, on their dial tone performance. There are dozens of dial tone indexes which, at the end of the day, get reviewed when rate requests are being examined at the PUC levels. Sometimes these lead to rebates to users when they are not met.
No such metrics exist for their ability to meet ISP needs. This has been demonstrated recently by the reporting mandates at the federal level, where it is mandatory to report outages affecting 50,000 or more POTS subscriber lines, but where hundreds of thousands of 'net users go unreported, all under the guidance and sanctions of the FCC and the NTIA. |
